Trump had resisted the economic penalties against Turkey in favor of his personal relationship with President
The Trump administration issued sanctions against Turkey’s military acquisitions agency on Monday to punish the NATO ally more than three years after it bought a missile defense system from Russia. The economic and travel penalties against Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries and four of its top officials were as much a warning to other nations — including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — that are considering buying arms and other military equipment from Moscow. The announcement of the sanctions, in President Trump’s final weeks in office, also displayed American officials’ eagerness to push past his affinity for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and hold the country to account for potentially allowing Russia to infiltrate Western defense technology. Turkey’s refusal to back away from its purchase, in 2017, of the Russian S-400 missile defense system left “us with no choice, ultimately,” said Christopher Ford, the assistant secretary of state for international security. “This is not a step that we have taken lightly, or certainly quickly,” Mr. Ford told journalists in a briefing shortly after Mr. Trump approved the sanctions. “And it’s been very carefully pursued, and we tried very hard to give Ankara every opportunity to find a better path forward, and it hasn’t done so.” Mr. Trump resisted imposing the sanctions last year, after Russia delivered the missile defenses to Turkey, angering members of Congress who last week approved their mandatory inclusion in a military spending bill for 2021.
